Method of managing at least one wireless communications interface of a terminal, and a terminal

ABSTRACT

A method of managing at least one wireless communications interface of a terminal by performing an obtaining step (E 10 ) to obtaining information (CId) representative of the geographical location of the terminal; a searching step (E 20 ) for searching in a database of the terminal at least one identifier of a wireless communications interface of the terminal that is associated with said information. If such an associated identifier is found, an automatic activation step (E 50 ) is performed for activating the wireless communications interface corresponding to the at least one identifier.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/558,330,which was filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 2, 2014,which was a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/520,788,now U.S. Pat. No. 8,948,736, which was filed in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office on Jul. 5, 2012, and which was a National Phase ofInternational Application PCT/FR2010/052935, filed on Dec. 29, 2010, andclaimed the priority of French Application No. 10/50013, filed Jan. 4,2010. The entire contents of these applications are hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the general field oftelecommunications.

More particularly, it relates to activating a wireless communicationsinterface on a terminal, such as, for example, an interface of theBluetooth™, or WiFi™ (Wireless Fidelity) type.

The term “activation” (or correspondingly “deactivation”) is used hereinwith respect to a wireless communications interface to mean switching onor starting the interface (or correspondingly switching it off). Inother words, in the meaning of the invention, a wireless communicationsinterface does not transmit any signal (not even a presence signal), solong as it is not activated.

In general manner, wireless communications interfaces of the Bluetooth™or wireless local area network (WLAN) type enable a terminal to connectto a home network or to a private or public communications network viaan access point. This connection is possible only when thecommunications interface is activated.

At present, a wireless communications interface is activated anddeactivated manually by the user of the terminal: the user makes use ofa dedicated menu of the terminal to select an interface for activatingor deactivating, and then specifies which action is to be performed(i.e. activation or deactivation).

In order to avoid repeatedly activating and deactivating communicationsinterfaces, the user has the option of leaving the wirelesscommunications interfaces of the terminal activated permanently.

Nevertheless, that option consumes a considerable amount of energy andtherefore has a non-negligible impact on the battery life of theterminal.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention serves in particular to mitigate that drawback byproposing a management method for managing at least one wirelesscommunications interface of a terminal, the method comprising:

an obtaining step of obtaining information representative of thegeographical location of the terminal;

a searching step of searching in a database of the terminal for at leastone identifier of a wireless communications interface of the terminalthat is associated with said information; and

if such an associated identifier is found, an automatic activation stepof activating the wireless communications interface corresponding tosaid at least one identifier.

Correspondingly, the invention also provides a terminal fitted with atleast one wireless communications interface, the terminal comprising:

means for obtaining information representative of the geographicallocation of the terminal;

means for searching in a database of the terminal for at least oneidentifier of a wireless communications interface of the terminal thatis associated with said information; and

means for automatically activating, if such an associated identifier isfound, the wireless communications interface corresponding to said atleast one identifier.

The invention starts from the observation that a user often activatesthe wireless communications interfaces of a terminal in the samelocations (i.e. a WLAN interface at home or at work, or indeed in afrequently-visited station or airport, etc.). The inventionadvantageously proposes storing in a database of the terminal thecorrespondences between geographical locations occupied by the terminaland one or more wireless communications interfaces to be activated.

The invention thus makes it possible to activate the appropriateinterfaces automatically as a function of the geographical location ofthe terminal. This relieves the user of any need to manually activatethese interfaces via a dedicated menu. These interfaces are thusactivated in a manner that is transparent for the user of the terminal.

The invention makes it possible not only to minimize manual proceduresfor activating wireless communications interfaces of a terminal, but italso provides significant savings in terms of battery life, since thereis no longer any point in keeping the communications interfacespermanently activated.

In a first variant implementation of the invention, the obtaining stepcomprises receiving a message transmitted by a GPS system and containinginformation representative of the geographical location of the terminal.

By way of example, this information is constituted by the geographicalcoordinates of the terminal.

In a second variant implementation of the invention, the obtaining stepcomprises receiving a signaling message transmitted by a cellulartelecommunications network to which the terminal is connected (e.g. aglobal system for mobile communications (GSM) network or a universalmobile telecommunications system (UMTS) network), the message containinginformation representative of the geographical location of the terminal.

In this second variant, the information may for example be an identifierof a cell in the cellular communications network (i.e. the cell in whichthe terminal is located or to which it is attached).

Thus, the invention makes it possible to rely on data that isconventionally received by the terminal from the cellulartelecommunications network. It does not require any special messages tobe organized between the terminal and the cellular network, but makesuse of information that is ordinarily available to the terminal whenconnected to the cellular network, i.e. the identifier of the cell towhich the terminal is attached or in which it is located.

The information representative of the geographical location of theterminal may also be constituted by the geographical coordinates of theterminal, as transmitted in a message coming from the cellular network.

In a particular implementation, the management method of the inventionfurther comprises:

a detection step of detecting a change in the geographical location ofthe terminal; and

an automatic deactivation step of deactivating one or more previouslyactivated interfaces.

The invention thus makes it possible to deactivate the wirelesscommunications interfaces of the terminal automatically as a function ofthe geographical location of the terminal, and more particularly whenits location has changed. This preserves the battery life of theterminal.

In order to avoid inappropriate deactivation of the interface, theautomatic deactivation step may be implemented only on expiry of apredetermined duration, during which it is ensured that thecommunications interface is no longer in use by the terminal.

The invention also provides a database of a terminal having at least onewireless communications interface, the database containing at leastinformation representative of a geographical location of the terminalassociated with at least one identifier of one of said wirelesscommunications interfaces.

In a particular implementation, the various steps of the managementmethod are determined by computer program instructions.

Consequently, the invention also provides a computer program on a datamedium, the program being suitable for being implemented in a terminalor more generally in a computer, the program including instructionsadapted to implementing steps of a management method as described above.

The program may use any programming language, and it may be in the formof source code, object code, or code intermediate between source codeand object code, such as in a partially compiled form, or in any otherdesirable form.

The invention also provides a computer-readable data medium thatincludes instructions of a computer program as mentioned above.

The data medium may be any entity or device capable of storing theprogram. For example, the medium may comprise storage means such as aread only memory (ROM), e.g. a compact disk (CD)-ROM or amicroelectronic circuit ROM, or indeed magnetic recording means, e.g. afloppy disk or a hard disk.

Furthermore, the data medium may be a transmissible medium such as anelectrical or optical signal, suitable for being conveyed via anelectrical or optical cable, by radio, or by other means. The program ofthe invention may in particular be downloaded from an Internet typenetwork.

Alternatively, the data medium may be an integrated circuit in which theprogram is incorporated, the circuit being adapted to execute or to beused in the execution of the method in question.

In other implementations or embodiments, it is also possible to envisagethe management method and the terminal of the invention presenting allor some of the above-mentioned characteristics in combination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention appearfrom the following description made with reference to the accompanyingdrawings that show an embodiment having no limiting character. In thefigures:

FIG. 1 shows a particular embodiment of a terminal in accordance withthe invention, in its environment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the main steps of a method of managing awireless communications interface of the terminal shown in FIG. 1, in aparticular implementation of the invention; and

FIG. 3 shows an example of a particular implementation of a database inaccordance with the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a particular embodiment of a terminal 10 in accordance withthe invention, in its environment.

In the example described here, the terminal 10 is a multimode mobiletelephone. Nevertheless, this assumption is not limiting, it beingpossible to apply the invention to other types of terminal, such as forexample: a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc.

The terminal 10 has communications means 11 enabling it to connect to acellular telecommunications network NW. These communications means 11comprise in particular a subscriber identity module (SIM) card and aradio interface compatible with the cellular network NW.

The term “cellular” network is used herein to mean a wirelesscommunications network in which terminals communicate between oneanother by using dedicated infrastructure involving base stationsinstalled over the territory covered by the network, each base stationcovering a predetermined geographical zone referred to as a cell.

In this example the cellular network NW is a telecommunications networkof the universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) type.Nevertheless, the invention also applies to other cellular networks,such as for example, second-generation networks: global system formobile communications (GSM); general packet radio service (GPRS);enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE); etc.; to otherthird-generation networks such as: high speed data packet access(HSDPA); code division multiple access (CDMA), etc.; and tofourth-generation networks of the long-term evolution (LTE) type, etc.

The terminal 10 is also provided with a short-range wirelesscommunications interface 12 of the Bluetooth™ type and a medium-rangewireless communications interface 13 of the WLAN type.

The interface 12 enables the terminal 10 to set up a wireless connectionwith equipment 21 in a home network NWD, itself having a Bluetooth™interface. By way of example, the equipment 21 may be a hands-free kit,another terminal, etc. Local communication may thus be set up betweenthe terminal 10 and the equipment 21 within the home network NWD.

In similar manner, the interface 13 enables the terminal 10 to set up awireless connection with an access point 22 to a public network NWP(e.g. the Internet), in compliance with the WLAN protocol. In a variant,the network NWP may be a private network or a home network.

In the example considered here, consideration is given to managing thewireless communications interfaces 12 and 13 of the terminal 10.Naturally, other wireless communications interfaces could be taken intoconsideration, and the invention is easily applicable to managing someother number of interfaces.

Nevertheless, it should be observed that the wireless communicationsinterfaces 12 and 13 and the communications means 11 for the cellulartelecommunications network NW are mutually independent. In particular,they may be activated or deactivated independently of one another.

In the example described herein, the terminal 10 has the hardwarearchitecture of a computer. It comprises a processor 14, a random accessmemory (RAM) 15, a read only memory (ROM) 16, and a non-volatile memory17.

The ROM 16 constitutes a recording medium in accordance with theinvention that is readable by the processor 14 of the terminal 10 andthat has recorded thereon a computer program in accordance with theinvention, the program including instructions for executing steps of amethod of the invention for managing the communications interfaces 12and 13.

The main steps of the method are shown for a particular implementationof the invention in FIG. 2, and described below.

It is assumed that the terminal 10 is connected to the cellulartelecommunications network NW. This connection is kept active so thatthe terminal 10 can receive and/or send telephone calls or messages viathe network NW.

In known manner, when such a connection is set up, the cellular network,in particular by using a base station (Node B), broadcasts signalingmessages to the terminal 10 over the broadcast control channel (BCCH).These messages are for enabling the terminal 10 to set up a call overthe network NW.

On the basis of these signaling messages, the terminal 10 can determinethe particular cell in which it is located, or at least to which it isattached.

More precisely, it is assumed herein that the terminal 10 receives amessage M via its communications means 11, which message M istransmitted by the base station associated with the cell in which theterminal is located over the broadcast control channel (BCCH) of thenetwork NW (step E10).

In accordance with the UMTS standard, this message has systeminformation blocks (SIB). The block SIB1 contains in particular anidentifier CId of the cell (also written CellID).

More ample details about the system information conveyed over the BCCHare available for example in the 3GPP TS25.331 document entitled “Radioresource control: protocol specification”, Release 6.

The cell identifier CId constitutes information representative of thegeographical location of the terminal 10 in the meaning of theinvention, since it enables the terminal to be located, even if only“coarsely”. In known manner, each cell within a network is identified inunique manner, and each cell corresponds to a predefined geographicalzone. Thus, a cell identifier enables the geographical location of theterminal to be identified to within the nearest cell.

The processor 14 of the terminal 10 extracts the cell identifier CIdfrom the message M and stores it in the RAM 15.

It then searches for the identifier in a database 17A of the terminal 10(step E20). In the meaning of the invention, a database means a data setor structure (e.g. a table).

The database 17A is stored in the non-volatile memory 17 of theterminal. It associates identifiers of cells covered by the network NWwith the identifier(s) of one or more wireless communications interfacesof the terminal 10 that the user may desire to activate when located inthose cells.

An example of such a database is shown in FIG. 3. In this example:

the cell identifiers CId1 and CId2 of the network NW are associated withthe identifier ID(12) of the communications interface 12;

the cell identifier CId3 of the network NW is associated with theidentifier ID(13) of the communications interface 13;

the cell identifier CId4 of the network NW is associated with theidentifiers ID(12) and ID(13) of the communications interfaces 12 and13; etc.

This database may be predetermined and transmitted to the terminal, e.g.via one or another of the communications interfaces 12 or 13.

In a variant, the database may be enriched each time the user of theterminal 10 manually activates the communications interfaces 12 and 13.

For example, on each activation performed manually by the user of theterminal, the user specifies whether or not an identifier of theactivated interface is to be entered into the database 17A. Thus, onreceiving such a request, if the terminal 10 is in the coverage of thecellular network NW, it recovers the identifier of the cell in which itis located from one of the signaling messages transmitted by the networkand it associates that identifier in the database 17A with theidentifier of the activated interface.

As shown in the example of FIG. 3, a plurality of communicationsinterfaces of the terminal may be associated with the same cellidentifier. In similar manner, a communications interface may beassociated with a plurality of cell identifiers.

Step E20 of searching the database 17A thus seeks to determine whetherthe identifier CId is in the database, and if it is, to determine whichcommunications interface(s) of the terminal 10 is/are associatedtherewith (step E30). This step is implemented by interrogating thedatabase 17A using the identifier CId, in conventional manner known tothe person skilled in the art and not described in detail herein.

If the identifier CId is not in the database 17A, then the method ends(step E40). The communications interfaces 12 and 13 are not activatedautomatically by the processor 14, and the user remains free to activatethem manually if so desired.

It is assumed here that the cell identifier CId is equal to CId3. Thus,with reference to FIG. 3, by interrogating the database 17A, theprocessor 14 is able to determine that the interface 13, identified byID(13) is associated with the cell in which the terminal 10 is located.

On receiving the identifier ID(13), the processor 14 automaticallyactivates (in other words switches on) the interface 13 (step E50),using an appropriate software application of known type that is notdescribed in detail herein.

Activation of the interface 13 is thus triggered automatically, i.e.without requiring intervention by the user of the terminal 10.

With the interface 13 activated, a connection to the public network NWPcan be made, providing the terminal 10 is close enough to the accesspoint 22 to become paired therewith and to communicate therewith. Itshould be observed that the parameters for pairing with the access point22 may also be stored in the database 17A.

In the implementation described here, after the interface 13 has beenautomatically activated, the processor 14 of the terminal 10 continuesto analyze the cell identifiers received in the signaling messagestransmitted by the cellular network NW for the purpose of detecting achange in the geographical location of the terminal 10.

More particularly, either continuously or at various predeterminedinstants (e.g. periodically), the processor 14 extracts each cellidentifier (written CId′) that it receives in those messages andcompares them with the identifiers CId stored in the volatile memory 13(step E60).

If the identifier CId′ is different from the identifier CId, a change inthe geographical location of the terminal 10 has been detected. In otherwords, the previously activated interface 13 might no longer beappropriate.

On detecting this change of geographical location, the processor 14starts a timer for a predetermined time-out of duration T_(time-out)(step E70).

If during this time-out duration T_(time-out) (step E80) no message isreceived by the terminal 10 from the cellular network NW enabling it todetermine that it is once more in the cell identified by CId, then thecommunications interface 13 is automatically deactivated by theprocessor 14 (step E90) by an appropriate software application ofconventional type and not described herein.

It should be observed that steps E20 to E50 may be repeated with the newidentifier CId′ in order to identify another interface for activation inthe database 17A, should there be one. These steps are preferablyimplemented before deactivating the interface 13 so as to guaranteecontinuity in the connection made available to the terminal 10.

In contrast, if before the expiry of the time-out duration T_(time-out),the terminal 10 receives a signaling message from the cellular networkNW informing it that the cell in which it is located is once more thecell identified by CId, then the communications interface 13 is keptactivated, and the timer is switched off.

In another implementation of the invention, instead of verifying whetherthe terminal 10 is once again in the cell identified by CId, theprocessor 14 acts during the time-out duration to analyze whether aconnection with the network NWP is active. It then automaticallydeactivates the interface 13 if the connection with the network NWPremains inactive throughout the time-out duration.

In another implementation of the invention, the steps E60 to E90 are notimplemented and the user deactivates the interface 13 manually when sodesired.

In the example described above, the information representative of thegeographical location of the terminal 10 for use by the method of theinvention is an identifier of the cell of the network NW in which orclose to which the terminal is located, or to which it is attached. Thisassumption is not limiting, the invention may be applied equally well toother information representative of the geographical location of theterminal 10, such as, for example geographical coordinates representingthe position of the terminal 10.

Such geographical coordinates may be obtained in particular from amessage sent by the cellular network to which the terminal 10 isconnected, or from a message received from a global positioning system(GPS) if the terminal has a GPS receiver. Thus, the invention is alsoapplicable when the terminal 10 is not connected to a cellular network.

What is claimed is:
 1. A management method for managing at least onewireless communication interface of a terminal implemented by theterminal, the method comprising: obtaining information representative ofthe geographical location of the terminal; searching in a database ofthe terminal for a wireless communications interface of the terminalthat is associated with said information; and when such a wirelesscommunications interface is found, automatically activating saidwireless communications interface.
 2. The management method of claim 1,wherein obtaining said information comprises receiving a messagetransmitted by a GPS system and containing said informationrepresentative of the geographical location of the terminal.
 3. Themanagement method of claim 2, wherein said information representative ofthe geographical location of the terminal is constituted by thegeographical coordinates of the terminal.
 4. The management method ofclaim 1, wherein obtaining said information comprises receiving asignaling message transmitted by a cellular telecommunications networkto which the terminal is connected, the message containing saidinformation representative of the geographical location of the terminal.5. The management method of claim 4, wherein said informationrepresentative of the geographical location of the terminal is anidentifier of a cell in the cellular telecommunications network.
 6. Themanagement method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting a change inthe geographical location of the terminal; and automaticallydeactivating said at least one interface.
 7. A non-transitorycomputer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a computerprogram including instructions for executing steps of the managementmethod of claim
 1. 8. A terminal fitted with at least one wirelesscommunications interface, the terminal comprising: means for obtaininginformation representative of the geographical location of the terminal;means for searching in a database of the terminal for a wirelesscommunications interface of the terminal that is associated with saidinformation; and means for automatically activating, when such awireless communications interface is found, said wireless communicationsinterface.
 9. A database of a terminal having at least one wirelesscommunications interface, the database containing at least informationrepresentative of a geographical location of the terminal associatedwith at least one of said wireless communications interfaces to beactivated on the terminal.